Min Aung Hlaing Arrives in Malaysia for Migrant Talks — SkimNews
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- Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 7 for his first visit to Malaysia since the 2021 coup, invited by PM Anwar Ibrahim for talks on repatriating 5,000 Myanmar migrants.
- Nearly 1,500 migrants returned to Myanmar by ship on Sunday as the first batch of the 5,000 Anwar pledged to send back, with around 3,500 more held in Malaysian detention centers awaiting deportation.
- Myanmar has separately organized weekly flights returning roughly 8,000 migrants since January — a figure revealed this week that received far less publicity than the ship flotilla.
- Rohingya refugees comprise two-thirds of approximately 190,000 Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, per UN data; rights monitors warn they may be returned to a country where they have experienced persecution.
- Anwar Ibrahim has not publicly confirmed whether Rohingya will be among those returneeding, though the foreign ministry says talks will cover 'Myanmar nationals of all ethnic groups who have been in Malaysia illegally.'
- The International Court of Justice is currently weighing whether Min Aung Hlaing's 2017 Rohingya crackdown — when he was military chief — constituted genocide, a charge the military has always denied.
Why it matters: Min Aung Hlaing's Malaysia visit marks the fifth ASEAN nation to host him since his April transition to civilian president, exposing the bloc's inconsistent enforcement of its Myanmar exclusion policy. For Rohingya refugees — two-thirds of Myanmar's 190,000 refugees in Malaysia — the 5,000-strong repatriation plan carries direct stakes as the ICJ weighs whether Min Aung's 2017 crackdown was genocide.
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